Dirty Grandpa: Crass Comedy Hits The Big Screen

Ah, yes… the movie where Zac Efron’s abs character from “Neighbours” joins the tired lascivious road trip comedy plot. Considering Robert De Niro is one of the greatest actors of his generation, this is a new low with raunchy, offensive scenes slapped all over the cliché plot of road trips going haywire. Think “The Hangover” meets “Neighbours”.

The plot, a non-existent one, revolves around army veteran Dick (De Niro) tricking his uptight grandson Jason Kelly (Efron) into a road trip after the death of Efron’s grandmother. As it is Dick and his wife’s customary tradition make a road trip to South Florida, he drags his grandson along just before Efron’s wedding day. The usual drinking, drugs, parties, and lewdness that so forms the core of American humour follows.

We’ll like to add that the opening montage had terrible photoshop, which was really confusing because the rest of the film was decently filmed in terms of cinematography. Maybe the editor took a day off.

As the film drew near to the end, I mused: Will anything here really get a laugh out of me? The tacky and highly unamusing film did nothing for a bunch of decent actors. But most of all, somebody funded this abomination to the medium of film (we see you, Adam Sandler). The appeal of bikini-clad girls and parties was lost on audiences after a few laughs, somewhere amidst the mainly “ew” moments. We pity Aubrey Plaza, who had to go through the bad sexual jokes and the cringe-worthy sex scene.

But then again, what did we expect walking into this film? Wes Anderson-style subtlety?